Hotel St. James — Hotel in New York

The hotel is conveniently located in Times Square. We stayed here for one night when going to the theater. Room was a nice size and very clean. We had plenty of towels and bed was comfortable. ||The reason for the 3 instead of 4 is the front desk staff. I found them to be rude and incompetent. They could not find our reservation - even when using our last name or our reservation number. The gentleman helping us went and got another person. This person too could not find our reservation. I had a physical hard copy of the confirmation and I had it visible on my phone. The gentleman told me this happens when you book through 3rd parties. I then showed him that I did NOT book through a 3rd party but directly through there website. No response but spoke in French to his coworker, saying 3rd party and I was not telling the truth. So I again said NO 3rd party - I booked directly through your website. The men went and got a 3rd employee, a woman. Now she spends some time looking. Yes I got impatient and explained we had dinner reservations and Theater tickets. They just asked me to be patient. No offer to take the luggage and figure it out so we could go. No nothing except speaking in French rudely. The same guy said again in French that I booked through a 3rd party. My daughter speaks French and was listening to everything they said would then text it to me. I again said I did not book through 3rd party and I showed the woman/manager that I clearly booked through their website. She looked and said in French to the guy that I booked through the hotel website. They were annoyed and getting frustrated with me when they could not find our reservation. After another 20 minutes the woman found the reservation and then said -- someone already checked in. Well that would be something bc it was just my daughter and I and we were both standing right in front of her. I asked how this is possible - she could not answer. She tried calling upstairs. No response. They now had to send someone up to the room and have them check to see if the room was occupied. After another 10 minute he came down and said no-one there. The woman rudely told me this happens sometimes. The desk makes a mistake. Pretty big mistake in my opinion. No apology for the delay. No anything to make it right. We were late for our dinner reservation and it was given away as there was only a 15 minute grace period. And yes we did call the restaurant to explain we were running late. They explained they could not hold the table. Thankfully when we arrived 30+ minutes late they said they would try to accommodate use but we would need to wait a little. I feel strongly the Hotel should have done something to make up for their error and incompetence. |To the staff - work on your customer service nd admit when you are wrong and fix it. ||Would I stay again - only if I could not find...

The Hotel St. James is a relatively speaking good price point hotel considering its ideal location. It’s a decent place to stay, not much on amenities but if you want to be in the heart of the theater district and near Times Square and don’t want to spend a fortune on lodging, it’s a good choice. It has its pros and cons.||On the pro side, once again, low cost (for the location), clean, extremely helpful, friendly, and accommodating staff, functional, and comfortable. The lobby was nice and comfortable. It’s also a very cool, older style hotel unlike the big chains. There are its share of cons, but none of them are deal-breakers. As is so common in hotels now, the lighting could be better, the wi-fi works but is a bit slow, there are very few electrical outlets so charging or plugging in a laptop is not an easy endeavor but doable, the furniture was in pretty bad shape (scuffed up and has seen better days), there is a small fridge but it was unplugged, no microwave. There was also no ice machine in the hotel. There were some maintenance issues, the bathroom sink dripped and the handles are very hard to use with wet hands, the TV remote didn’t work and the TV was not feasible to use without the remote. Overall, the room needed updating, but it was clean and the beds were very comfortable. While they charge for early check-in, if you don’t want to pay the extra fee you can store your bags there and enjoy the area until check-in time.||There is no “store” in the hotel where you can buy snacks, but there are several places near the hotel to get something within a one or two-minute walk.||Although it looks like way more cons than pros, the cons are either fixable (we didn’t call about the remote, just told them when we checked out) or just not a huge deal—so the furniture is not beautiful, who cares! If you’re looking for a hotel with lots of amenities (and price tag to match), the St. James is probably not for you, but it you want a reasonably priced, clean, comfortable place to sleep, shower, and change in a fantastic location, then this is a great choice.||Future trips to New York will include the Hotel St. James for...

The good: the location couldn’t be better. You are steps away from Times Square and the subway (several lines). Lots of great places to eat / do. Near all the big shows. The fantastic: Joey at the front desk! He was AMAZING and so friendly and helpful. Honestly, if I went back here it would be because of him he was that good!! The not great: the hotel itself is tired and dated. One of the elevators was minuscule and had a weird padding hanging up that just felt dirty and you were afraid to touch it. The room size was adequate. We had two queen beds so the room was significantly larger than our friend’s one bed. They had been recently renovated (11th floor / specifically room 1110). The bathroom was very small and felt like it needed a deep clean. There were mysterious splatter marks (hardened and dried) on the back of the toilet and wall. The ONLY place to put personal items was a small medicine cabinet with a broken shelf. A couple of hooks on the back of the door or a shelf would be a huge, cheap addition. There is no fan or ventilation in the bathroom. Our solution was to not really touch anything unnecessarily and do what we had to do and get out. We were out sightseeing and didn’t spend a lot of time in the room itself so we just made do. The pillows weren’t great. The beds themselves weren’t great. But, it was a place to sleep and put our things. One of the owners live there and you will see her every night downstairs eating dinner. They have a small lounge area that was perfect for our group of friends to gather in the evening. The bar is for “display only” but you can bring your own in and enjoy it in the small lounge. Nobody bothers you. But do note: there are no refrigerators or ice buckets in the room. I think it’s a case of “you get what you pay for” but if you are used to getting fancier rooms at this price point, either splurge on a higher end hotel or just go knowing it’s just OK...